Flipping through the Waterville Senior High School hockey team's program, you realize just how dominant the Panthers have been a times.

That the Rams lost to rival Gardiner 10-1 on Saturday night is probably disturbing enough to Cony hockey fans. But a greater concern is the lack of players on the Cony roster.

Members of the Spaulding High Crimson Tide boarded a bus Wednesday at 6 a.m. in Barre, Vt., and headed to Waterville for the annual Holiday Tournament at Alfond Rink.

You hear it again and again this time of year: Christmas tournament games don't mean anything. Well, some do and some don't.

Here's hoping you're having a great holiday season, and here's hoping you were able to see the Mt. Abram-Winthrop or Lawrence-Morse games on Friday night. Only about 60 fans were on hand for the Mt. Abram-Winthrop game, but it was still one of the most exciting games you could hope to see. I left the gym, got on my phone and said, "Games like that are why I love my job."

Moving on, the best matchups during this week are at the Capital City Hoop Classic. But there are a few interesting games on Friday in which Heal points are on the line.

Gardiner Area High School quarterback/linebacker Kyle Stilphen and Lawrence High School quarterback Jack Hersom were both named finalists Friday for the James J. Fitzpatrick Trophy given annually to the top senior football player in the state.

The Waterville Senior High School hockey team will host its annual Christmas Invitational Dec. 26 and 27 at Colby College.

Here are some more things worth mentioning from a very strange night at Messalonskee.

The Winslow Black Raiders play at Houlton/Hodgdon Saturday then get a few days off before taking part in the prestigous Maine High School Hockey Invitational.

Maranacook's Will Bardaglio and Ryan Martin each spoke with collegiate basketball representatives following their team's 60-47win over Gardiner on Tuesday night.

I've made a few scoring mistakes covering basketball throughout my career, but I was pretty sure I had it right Friday night at Erskine Academy.

I wasn't lucky enough to see the Messalonskee-Brewer triple overtime game Friday night, but as usual, there are plenty more matchups to look forward to in the last week before the Christmas break. The big one -- and indeed, it's one of the best of the season -- is at Morse High School on Friday night.

Free throw percentage has been on the decline for a few years, and Friday night's boys basketball game between Oak Hill and Waterville was another painful reminder of that.

Waterville won the game 56-50, but either team could have taken control of the game had they made their foul shots. Waterville was just 13 of 29 as a team, while Oak Hill was 6 for 17 at the line. That's a 41 percent rate.

The Southern Maine Community College is No. 1 in the country in the latest United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division II men's basketball coaches poll.

Several area baseball coaches on Thursday expressed their disappointment and concern over the findings of the Mitchell Report.

Former Lawrence High School head coach Josh Blaisdell has joined the coaching staff at Winslow High School, serving as an assistant to Corey Lessard.

The Pine Tree Conference held its annual banquet on Dec. 2 and a number of local athletes and coaches were honored.

There will be some folks in Pittsfield pulling for the University of Delaware in this weekend's 1-AA football national championship game. Johnathon Smith, a 2004 Maine Central Institute graduate, is a linebacker for the Blue Hens.

Delaware takes on two-time defending champion Appalachian State in the final.

Smith transferred to Delaware this year after three years at Connecticut. As a linebacker, Smith has 14 tackles for the Blue Hens. As a fullback, Smith has 12 carries for 68 yards, a 5.7 yards per carry average.

This just in: Ben Grant (Winslow) and Matt DelGiudice (Messalonskee) can play a little hockey.

It's never too early for a test on the basketball court and three of them are on tap Tuesday night in just the second game of the season.

It's a little too soon to tell which games are going to end up being big ones, but guessing which games will be interesting ones is fine even after one weekend of games. Here's a look at some interesting matchups in the week ahead:

It's always tough interviewing a coach after a tough loss. If I were a coach in that situation, probably the last person I'd want to talk to is someone with a notebook or a tape recorder. So it's nice when there's another reminder that we have some good people coaching in central Maine.

After "home" games at the Augusta Civic Center, UMaine-Farmington and Thomas College, the Colby College basketball teams will get to play on their own floor on Saturday.

Friday night is opening night of the high school basketball season, and in the KVAC Class A, there are a couple of interesting games.

Lawrence plays at Skowhegan. Both teams feel they've improved from last season, and expect to make playoff runs. For Skowhegan, a key is how much have Jordan Taylor and Paul Verville, who both started as freshmen last year, improved? For Lawrence, have the Bulldogs developed an inside game that will spark the offense? Expect both teams to play strong defense, as Skowhegan coach Troy Scott played at Lawrence under Mike McGee, and both stress defense first.

Track and field athletes, who already have it tough with limited real practice time, are in a real bind this winter.